Posted on 01/25/2007 6:08:31 AM PST by JZelle
A charter school and a bus company scrambled Wednesday night to determine how and why a 4-year-old boy was put off a school bus Monday morning, only to wander, crying and lost, for at least an hour on St. Paul's East Side.
The boy boarded the bus about 8 a.m. near Earl and Wakefield streets to go to Achieve Language Academy on Stillwater Avenue in St. Paul.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
And why are parents putting a 4 year old on a bus?
Good question. I drive mine.
Come on now Freepers, it's time to heap the vitriol on this four year old that was dumped on the four year old in the body sock,on yesterday's postings.
Agreed.
I suspect we will see more of this (younger bus riders) as the Libs continue to push for earlier and earlier child education (indoctrination).
Glad he was picked up.
Someone could have made a mistake. It could happen ~ even to the best of people.
Not enough information here to judge.
Poor little guy. I can't imagine what would prompt the driver to do that. There's no excuse whatever.
Think about that for a moment ... the story implies that the mixup might have happened because "... the boy had been picked up at a stop where he ordinarily did not board."
So naturally, you assign the bus driver to a different route where everybody is at a stop where, from the driver's perspective, they ordinarily do not board. Better to pay his salary to sit on the bench than to give him a busload of opportunities to repeat the mistake.
My youngest (really grandson) came to join us at the age of 6 years, 3 days. We had been strangers to him, but he was dumped here by his mother. A reflection of what she did, not on how we felt.
Two months later, the first day of school, he was dumped down at the end of the road 1/2 mile away and told to walk it, so that the bus driver didn't have to drive down here and turn around. We didn't know she wasn't going to be at the bus stop (right outside) so we didn't go meet him for quite a few minutes. After 15 minutes i sent a son up the road and i stayed by the phone, only to find a crying, hot, tired six year old, abandoned and walking home slowly. My poor baby.
I raised the roof of the school, all the way to the school board. Sometimes there IS no excuse.
We made it through to the next April, before pulling him out and homeschooling him from then on. He's a wonderful 12 yo now.
That, at least, offers a chance at an explanation for what happened. Perhaps there's a checklist -- "this kid, picked up here, gets dropped off there." Stick to the checklist, and most times the kids get dropped off at the right spot.
If this kid got on at a different spot, it would mean he was destined for a different drop-off spot, and thus what happened.
For a driver who was unfamiliar with the route, I can actually see this happening.... and a 4-yo boy might very well not say anything about it being the wrong stop.
HOWEVER!!!!
This driver had apparently been on the route for a while, and the little boy had been riding for a while, too.
The driver would have to be completely oblivious to individual kids and their destinations, to make a mistake like this. In which case, the driver should never have been driving little kids in the first place.
Worse thing Ive done, that I can think of, is oversleeping after working the night shift and not picking my son up from school. Thankfully, I had only overslept for about 15 minutes, but that rush of panic I felt when I woke up was awful.
MM
t.v. was on, welfare check just got there and tax-payer funded buses were available.
How many guesses you need. 8-)
When you don't expect something from someone - you never get it.
This is in the same area of town that kicked the children off the bus for speaking English not too long ago.. Is it not?
Nothing would surprise me from up there.
If I drove a school bus the kids would be returned, but different, and well behaved, (and they would like it)
I believe you, you keep me in line pretty well, whether you think so or not. But then, i'm not 4. :D
But, but, you told me you were a "10"
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